Technology Improvement Plan
Hardware Addition''' '''Explain Everything - https://explaineverything.com/ o Cost '''– price varies based on the number of seats using the equipment and the number of whiteboards integrated in the school. o '''Value to the curriculum – An advantage is access to lessons and content from whiteboard anywhere. There are seamless traveling instructional experiences that occur and there can also be real time educational events to further the educational effort. o Possible drawbacks – Cost and willingness to adapt to new technology. o Strategy to assess the effectiveness of the acquisition – '''Feedback reports form students and teachers. We would seek to specifically inquire about how this has enhanced their ability to learn with perspectives from both the teacher and students '''Software Addition Canvas - '''https://www.canvaslms.com/ o '''Cost – Is not publicized but includes an annual subscription fee and a one time implementation cost. This will likely be a large-scale purchase o Value to the curriculum – Allows for a seamless learning management system. It is user friendly and can retain much of teacher work from prior years. A one stop shop for educational tools and records for students and teachers. Teachers and students can engage in web conferencing on this tool to help with real time teaching or educational conversations. o Possible drawbacks – Very few exist. It would just be the learning curve more than anything. Teachers have been using other learning management sogtware and we need to adapt and become more well versed. o Strategy to assess the effectiveness of the acquisition – Schoolwide survey instrument would be a wonderful measre that is easy to understand yet has significant enough numbers of usesrs that are parent and stundents Portable Device Addition''' '''IPads – www.apple.com o Cost - $299 Apple Ipad; $89 pencil o Value to the curriculum – Access to more creative programs and apps to enhance the educational experience beyond basic word-processing and presentation tools. Being that our school is math and science oriented, iPads work well in getting more real-world application and tools into the hands of our most academically inclined students. o Possible drawbacks – Cost is a huge drawback. Fragility of the IPad can also be a drawback. o Strategy to manage the portable device – Devices will be collected by 1st period teachers at the conclusion of each day. This will provide a consistent start and end point of usage in the school daily. o Strategy to assess the effectiveness of the portable device – Monthly analysis of usage by administration through observations. Teachers will evaluate based on engagement and participation when utilizing this tool. Students will evaluate based on ease of use and functionality consistently in the educational environment. o Potential safety concerns about the use of the portable device in the classroom – Fragility and lack of monitoring software. The usage will be limited to certain settings to prevent non academic usage. Cloud or Web-Based''' Addition' '''Office 365 – www.office.com' o Cost – Can be accessed free to school with all the software applications needed for school use o Commercial, freeware, or open-source – Commercial software with free cost option. o Value to the curriculum – Office 365 will be significantly valuable to the curriculum for the fact that it is preparing students to utilize the office suite. Employers are looking for office suite ready employees. o Possible drawbacks – Lack of access to software applications o Strategy to assess the effectiveness of the cloud or web-based acquisition – Observing produced works by use of the students. o Potential safety concerns about the use of the cloud or web-based application in the classroom – Very little concerns except access being limited at times during internet problems. Using Technology To Create Original and Epic Class Lessons and Projects''' o 'Cost '– This would be free to educators interested in learning. They would be coming on a teacher workday that allowed for professional development training. They could sign up through SDRWeb, the county’s professional development course hub. o '''Value to the curriculum – This will help our curriculum and any other teachers who have been searching for ways to adopt the tech philosophy that is so heavily advocated o Strategy to assess the effectiveness of the workshop – Post workshop survey instrument is the best tool for analyzing the effectiveness of workshop. Plan For Staff Collaboration Of Best Practice Technology Use''' Collaborative thought through integrated PLC’s. One thing we can adopt is paired planning periods where two subject areas can collaborate during one planning a month to share technological works done in the classroom. They can also have guided planning activities by the technology integrator assigned to school. Incentives can also be offered to teachers that are using technology in school apparel. '''Electronic Resource Sharing Tool''' Shared folders through Google Drive currently exist allowing for sharing of all instructional documents '''School Schedule for Computer Maintenance/Back-Up Procedures'' Scheduled maintenance of computers occurs, if needed, at 8:00 am to 9:00 am. This is the time of prior to school start and Cav Morning and Clover Hill High School. This will provide minimal impact to the instructional day. Back up will occur Friday mornings at the same time. These are automatic and scheduled by the county so all computers will likely be compromised during that time county wide.